Leonard: 5 takeaways from Giants win over the 49ers, including a strong performance by the offensive line

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Giants didn’t play perfectly and held their breath on Nick Mullens’ final pass out the back of the end zone. But Big Blue did make noticeable progress in one important area in Monday’s 27-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers: on the offensive line.

It’s only appropriate then that our Five Takeaways from Monday’s victory begins with the five men up front.

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1. ‘AS A UNIT, THAT’S PROBABLY THEIR BEST PERFORMANCE’

Pat Shurmur’s praise of his line centered on their pass protection. In the Giants’ first eight games, the line on average surrendered 3.875 sacks and 7.25 quarterback hits per game. On Monday night, Eli Manning was sacked only once and hit four more times. What changed?

“We just put it all together this week,” said right tackle Chad Wheeler, who teamed with left tackle Nate Solder to solidify the edges. “Jamon (Brown) obviously played a huge role in that. I felt like at the bye week we kind of talked about a lot of flaws we had in our game. Coach brought those to our attention, so we were trying to fix those.”

Eli Manning finally gets time to throw as offensive line has best game of season. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

Brown, starting his first game as a Giant at right guard after being claimed off waivers from the Rams last week, was a massive upgrade over Week 1 starter Patrick Omameh (released) and recent starter John Greco (benched).

He picked up a stunt blitz by the Niners’ Cassius Marsh to set up Manning’s first of two TD passes to Odell Beckham Jr. and just provided a more consistent push.

“Coming into this I thought I could bring something to the offensive line and something to help us take steps in the right direction,” Brown said. “There are things I’m gonna take a look at that I can do better that can help us as a unit, as I’m sure everyone will, but it feels good to be able to step in and help us get a win that’s well-needed, not only for us as players but for the organization.”

Center Spencer Pulley, who dove on an early tipped Manning pass to catch it for a two-yard loss and prevent an interception near midfield, said the line communicated well, protected well and stuck together well as a unit.

He also said that even though the Giants went into halftime trailing, 13-10, there was a different sense about how they were playing.

“There was a time in the second half when we were down but it felt like we were up,” Pulley said. “Everybody was just having fun. It was an awesome feeling, and I think that’s when you play your best. It’s been that (way) up and down (in previous weeks), but that was probably the most consistently I’ve felt it.”

Rookie Will Hernandez (false start) and Brown (holding) both committed penalties on the final drive that Manning and the offense had to overcome. But the bottom line, as Beckham said, was this:

“The offensive line honestly did a great job all night,” OBJ said. “(Manning) had time to throw.”

Odell Beckham said the Giants could get on a roll and he did his part with two touchdowns against the 49ers. (Ben Margot / AP)

2. HEY, OBJ: ONE DOWN, SEVEN TO GO?

Beckham’s goal last week was for the Giants to win their final eight games. So was Monday’s win the start of salvaging this season and possibly even achieving Beckham’s goal?

“Salvage? Mmmm, working on seven more games, working on Tampa, we’ll see what happens after that,” Beckham said. “I don’t know about salvaging. (But) I wasn’t joking when I said we gotta win eight games. That’s obviously the goal. I don’t come here to just line up and lose. We come here to win these games. All we can do is worry about Tampa.”

Beckham said “I don’t think this was my very best game,” referring to his early drop and difficulty in matching with Niners corner Richard Sherman, who he said did well Monday to anticipate routes and try to stay a step ahead.

And even though he caught four passes for 74 yards and two TDs, he seemed most charged up about watching his teammates close out that final drive. Check out OBJ’s recap:

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“I loved it,” he said. “I love seeing Saquon catch a ball - they only had two people on him, ya’ll (are gonna) wanna put three people on him - catch a pass, make somebody miss, hurdle somebody just for fun and then run out of bounds? Cool. We get Evan (Engram) on a nice out-route? Bam. We hit Shep for the game-winner - shoutout to young Shep, ya’ll know what’s goin’ on. And it was just what we needed. It was the perfect storm.

“We’ve been in many close games, so we knew how to lose them,” Beckham added. “We had to find a way to win it and we did.”

3. ESTABLISHING THE RUN: SORT OF

Saquon Barkley had 15 carries in the first half and a season-high 20 in the game as Shurmur worked on establishing the run more than the Giants had in the first half. Unfortunately, Barkley only gained 67 total rushing yards at 3.4 yards per clip, partially due to the running back slipping constantly in the first half, which forced him to change cleats in the second quarter.

“Tried to (get Barkley going on the ground),” Shurmur said. “I think we can do a better job.”

Barkley still made two of the plays of the game on the final drive, though. He drew a huge holding penalty on the Niners’ Malcolm Smith by blowing by him on a route on 3rd-and-12 near midfield. Then Barkley’s 23-yard catch-and-run on an option route got the Giants into the end zone to set up the game-winning TD.

“It was a great call by our coach and a great throw by Eli,” Barkley said. “I missed a ball earlier in that drive, lost it in the air. I wanted to make up for it.”

4. SHEPARD AND ENGRAM WAIT THEIR TURNS

Sterling Shepard had one catch for six yards and one rush for 27 yards when the Giants’ final drive started. Evan Engram had one catch for no yards. That’s it. But then in the clutch, Engram caught three passes for 46 yards, including a 31-yarder downfield and a nine-yarder down to the 3-yard line. And then Shepard’s second and final catch was the biggest: the game-winning TD.

“It was a rough day for me, so I was going to do whatever I had to do,” Shepard said. “I told everybody in the huddle before going out for that last drive that we have ... to get the ball in the end zone. If I say that, I’m going to have to live by it.”

Engram’s nine-yard catch toward the right sideline down the near goal line also was an important bounce-back from a drop a couple plays earlier. Manning had thrown a terrific ball over top, and while coverage was tight, Engram couldn’t come up with it. He made sure to get the next one.

5. OH, ELI

The final drive and the win sugar-coated some more bad play by Manning. There was a second-half deep ball where Beckham was open and Manning hung the ball so high and behind his receiver, it looked more like a punt than a pass.

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And there was 3rd-and-goal from the 3-yard line late in the second quarter when Beckham had no defender lined up over him but Manning had checked into a run and never looked back.

“I wanted it, but it just wasn’t in the books,” Beckham said. “I couldn’t - I thought it (the defense) was a joke, at first. It kinda felt like nobody was over me and I’m just lookin’ around and we just had a different play drawn up. They made a stop … but hey, it’s all good, it’s all behind us now, we got the win.”

Beckham also laughed about his first touchdown, when Brown and the line gave Manning time to throw: “I just was kind of standing back there. I hope Eli saw me. I felt like the last kid at recess waiting to get picked. He saw me, throws a strike.”